We continued where the Forestry Commission had coppiced a fairly large area and we were asked to build deer fencing with all the cut offs. This is to prevent the deer from nibbling the newly growing shoots from the coppiced stumps.

There had been the storm 'Katie' over the previous weekend so the River Wye was very high, very muddy and swirling with debris.

At the start of the day the mass of brush obscures the team in the distance!

The sun came out for our morning break!

Spurge Laurel (Daphne laureola)

We found this Spurge Laurel growing through the brush cuttings as well as lots of little bluebells which were about to come into flower

This shrub branches direct from the ground and grows up to 1 metre high. Has dark green, shiny, narrow leatherly oval leaves clustered at the top of each stem. The small bright, yellow-green, 4-lobed flowers are tubular and borne in clusters of 3-10 in the axils of the upper leaves. Develops green egg-shaped berries that turn black when ripe in late summer. Poisonous to humans but not to birds.

At the end of the day this area has now been cleared and the deer fencing erected.

We will be revisiting this site to carry on with this as there is still a large area to be done. It is a useful task to do as we do not wish to disturb nesting birds with our usual tree cutting.